Vanessa Ruta facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Vanessa Ruta
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Ruta in 2015
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| Born | |
| Citizenship | United States |
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| Spouse(s) | Rickie Mohan |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience |
| Institutions | Rockefeller University |
| Doctoral advisor | Roderick MacKinnon |
| Other academic advisors | Richard Axel, Robert Barlow Jr. |
Vanessa Julia Ruta is an American neuroscientist. She studies how the brain works, especially in fruit flies. Her research focuses on how flies use their senses, like smell, to learn and behave.
Dr. Ruta is a professor at Rockefeller University. She leads a lab that studies how the brain controls behavior. In 2019, she received a special award called the MacArthur Fellowship. This award is given to talented people who show great creativity.
Vanessa's Journey in Science
Vanessa Ruta studied Chemistry at Hunter College. She graduated with top honors in 2000. After that, she went to Rockefeller University for her PhD. She earned her PhD in Biology in 2005.
During her PhD, she worked with a scientist named Roderick MacKinnon. She helped figure out the structure of a special protein called a potassium ion channel. These proteins are like tiny gates that let charged particles move in and out of cells. Her work showed how spider toxins can affect these channels.
Later, she became a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. She worked with Richard Axel. Here, she changed her focus to study how the brain processes information. She discovered a special brain circuit in male flies. This circuit helps them react to certain smells from female flies. She traced how this circuit works from the start to the end.
In 2011, Dr. Ruta became a professor at Rockefeller University.
What Vanessa Ruta Studies
Dr. Ruta's lab at Rockefeller University studies how the brain controls behavior in fruit flies. Her team has made many exciting discoveries.
- They found that the fly's memory center works like a computer's memory. It can be rewritten and accessed quickly.
- Her lab has explored brain circuits that control how male flies respond to female smells.
- They also showed how a chemical called dopamine helps the fly's brain remember things.
- Her team has studied how brain circuits for courtship (like dating for flies) have changed over time.
- They even figured out the structure of a key protein in insect smell. This protein is called Orco. Understanding it could help create new ways to repel insects.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has supported her work on insect smell receptors. This research could help develop new ways to keep insects away.
Awards and Special Honors
Vanessa Ruta has received many awards for her important scientific work.
- In 2005, she won the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award for her PhD research.
- She received several awards for young scientists in 2012 and 2013. These include the Pew Biomedical Scholar Award and the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.
- In 2013, she received the National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award. This award supported her project to understand how the brain changes when we learn and remember.
- In 2019, she was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. This is a very prestigious award given to people who show exceptional creativity.
